Molecular Pharmacology Branch (MPB)

MPB’s mission is to improve the treatment of recalcitrant, rare and neglected cancers through the discovery of potential therapeutic targets, the screening of new agents, the identification of genomic vulnerabilities, and the identification of potential therapeutic combinations using state-of-the-art drug discovery, molecular characterization, and mechanism-of-action techniques and through interactions collaboration with the cancer research community and other NCI laboratories. To achieve these goals, the MPB operates five laboratories at the Frederick National Laboratories for Cancer Research: the NCI60 cell line screen, the Target Validation and Screening Laboratory which specializes in drug combination studies in patient-derived complex spheroids, the Organoids Laboratory, the Translational Support Laboratory and the Tubulin Biology Laboratory. MPB is currently focused on 3D patient-derived models with an emphasis on rare and recalcitrant cancers from the PDMR collection (https://pdmr.cancer.gov/).